If you do not have an employer plan that can accept rollovers of the $20,000 and $30,000 distributions, converting them to Roth would be far better than simply keeping the distributions outside of a retirement account. After converting to a Roth IRA you can take the money back out of the Roth IRA anytime and be in no worse of a situation than you are now. If you are presently under age 59½ and before taking money out of the Roth IRA you wait until 2028 or age 59½, whichever comes first, you'll avoid the early-distribution penalty on a distribution from the Roth IRA of up to the amount converted.
